Because there are over 750,000 self-pubbed and 250,000 books published a year and they won't all get reviews in the NYTBR. Authored by M.J. Rose

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Interesting Tidbits and Links

Best Review I Ever Got
I used to read books like this [The Hypnotist by M.J. Rose] before I discovered smutty worlds filled with vampires and shape shifters. But this book reminded me I liked to read books like this. It even had just humans in it and I still liked it. -- Samantha at Fiction Vixen Book Reviews

October 31, 2007

Scott Karp suggests not: "The whole mythology is emerging around the idea of “users” — consumers,
fans, regular average folk — creating content that media companies and
brands can leverage. It’s a compelling idea — but it’s a myth.

The reality is that “average people” don’t create a lot of content —
at least not the commercially viable kind. Most people are too busy.
Those that do “create content” — and who do it well — are those who are
predisposed to being content creators. The have some relevant skills,
training, raw talent, motivation, something.

“User-generated content” sites like YouTube are much less a platform
for armies of average people to create mountains of content and much
more a platform for real talent to be discovered.

The Advertising Research Foundation and American Assn. of Advertising Agencies, both based in New York, set out to measure consumers' emotional responses to TV advertising. What they discovered is that advertisements that tell a branding story work better than ads that focus on product positioning.

Thirty-three ads across 12 categories—from brands like Budweiser, Campbell's Soup and MasterCard—were analyzed by 14 leading emotion and physiological research firms. The research tools varied from testing heart rate and skin conductance of the ad viewer to brain diagnostics.Continue reading here.

October 26, 2007

You write, “Writers tend to identify patterns and connect random events, to find- or create- meaning in a chaotic universe.” My problem is that I was hospitalized (bipolar disorder) 20-odd years ago for creating such patterns. Although I have been a professional writer all my life, I am TERRIFIED of getting to the “real” stuff that lies beneath the surface because I am afraid that when I show it to people, they will think I’m crazy. Or that I have gone crazy, even though I have been on medication and in therapy for the past 22 years.

Recently, I published a creative nonfiction piece which was nominated for inclusion in a Norton Anthology. Editors and friends are asking for more, but I feel like I am risking my sanity to produce it. I have a husband and young son and don’t want to risk my relationships with them for my art, especially because I have a job writing. Shouldn’t I be satisfied with that?

I define myself as a writer (as does the outside world), but I feel like a fraud for not digging deep enough and producing the hard stuff. Is there a way for me to allow myself to make those connections and be truly creative without losing my mind?

Anne

Dear Anne,

It seems to me that you are grappling with two related issues: 1) the possible effect on your psyche of pulling up disturbing and possibly volatile material, and 2) the potential ramifications of sharing this material.

It must be terribly frustrating for a writer to be aware simultaneously that there is rich and important material awaiting expression, and that accessing this could imperil her mental health, her relationship with her co-workers, and her standing in the community.

I wish I could offer you help in producing the “hard stuff” without paying too steep a psychic price. However, I know you only through your letter. I don’t have access to your thoughts and feelings, and I can’t monitor your responses, so it would be irresponsible and unethical for me to advise you in this.

My best suggestion would be to work with your therapist on defining issues that you want to write about. Your therapist can help you assess which material you are ready to use, and how deeply you want to probe. Then you can explore these issues thoroughly in therapy before committing them to the page. If certain topics or styles prove unsettling, you can pull back and deal with them. Just go as slowly as you need to, and don’t go it alone—enlist not just your therapist, but trusted family members and friends for support and honest evaluation of the toll the material may be taking on you—as you undoubtedly know, one common symptom of a manic episode is a feeling of invulnerability, and this could include denial that the process is affecting you negatively. Great writing is worth great sacrifice—but not the sacrifice of your health and well-being. Be conservative, please.

Regarding others’ responses—this is an issue that most serious writers struggle with at one time or another. The more honest we are about our thoughts and experiences, the more likely we are to frighten or offend someone. It’s easy to say that this shouldn’t matter—that we should have the courage to express our vision in the face of ignorance, disapproval or squeamishness. But of course it’s more complicated than that.

On Tuesday, a participant in my seminar on overcoming fear of success identified an important factor underlying his ambivalence about seeing his personal essays published: his concern that an elderly relative will be upset by revelations about his lifestyle. It’s not that he is conflicted about the material he draws on, but that this relative is both fragile and deeply religious, and has loved and supported him for most of his life. He feels that she would not be able to handle the realization that his current life does not conform to her deeply held beliefs about morality. This is a serious concern.

A friend has shared a personal essay that depicts her family dynamics in a way that is shocking, hilarious, and completely familiar. It may be the best piece she has ever written (and that is saying a great deal). When I asked her where she was planning to submit it, she replied, “I’ll see which journals are still standing when everyone involved is dead.”

Earlier this week, Sarah Watson put her blog on hiatus because she was overwhelmed by abusive responses to her writing. Her crime? Writing about, and posting pictures of, her experiences as a healthy and successful triathlete who happens to be obese.

All of which is to say, you are far from alone in your concern that making your private experience public could have unhappy repercussions. I think you are wise to take these seriously. There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this dilemma—each of us must perform our own cost/benefits analysis and identify the line we are unwilling to cross.

You have tested the waters with one personal essay. It sounds as though the responses were uniformly positive, which may indicate that those who know you can appreciate your imagination and artistry without assuming that your work is a direct reflection of your current functioning. But you never know. Again, I would advise you to go slowly and to enlist the support of your therapist and friends in identifying and managing any problematic reactions to your work.

Your desire dig deeper and write more authentically despite the risks is inspiring, especially since you have the option to coast on the writing career you have already established. I wish you great success with it, and look forward to reading your work in the future.

October 25, 2007

Q:I've created a commercial for my book launch, but realized I can't afford to run it on TV... any other options?

A: Back in the olden days of television -- like 2004 -- when you missed your favorite show, you were SOL until summer re-runs.

But now, thanks to improvements in online video players, you can watch full episodes of recently-aired, Prime-time shows right on your computer.Networks like ABC and FOX make these available because:

A)They help maintain and build the show’s fan base – which ideally leads to higher TV ratings, in turn leading to higher future advertising rates and possible syndication

B)They provide an additional revue stream, as the networks sell new commercials within the online re-broadcast

And it’s not just the major networks getting into the act… it seems like every website now contains some kind of video clips.Sports highlights, local news updates, magazines, radio stations, everywhere you look, you’ll find video content – including sneak peeks, cast interviews, behind-the-scenes footage – begging to be sponsored.

In fact, there’s so much available content, today it’s a relatively uncluttered environment for advertisers.Traditional TV programs can contain as many as 40 commercials per hour, but an online replay of a popular show like “Prison Break” might be sponsored by a only a single advertiser.

Best of all, it’s TiVo proof.With TV commercials, you know a certain % of people are going to skip over the ads if they have a DVR.And another % will leave the room during commercials to get food, go to the bathroom, etc. With pre-roll video, however, the consumer has selected that they wish to view that particular content, and they’re willing to watch your commercial – which usually can’t be skipped – to do so.

Studies have shown higher response rates for web-specific commercials vs. repurposed TV spots, but it’s not a deal breaker.According to MediaWeek, the online agency Carat Fusion recycled 15-second and 30-second TV spots from the latest Hyundai campaign, “Smart Thinking,” and search queries related to that campaign more than tripled in the first four days of the online video ad’s run.

“Results like those may have something to do with the notion that Web surfers are intrigued by a form of ad delivery that’s still relatively new,” says MediaWeek.“But in time, insiders say, the coolness factor will wear off, making it more difficult for marketers to elicit the same positive response from online video ads, be they original or repurposed.”

But in the meantime… it’s the Wild West on your computer screen.Website operators coming up with new content, sometimes on an hourly basis, to entertain visitors.Advertisers starting to plant flags while figuring out how much budget they should allocate in the future.

So why isn’t everyone buying online video commercials?First, it takes longer to build an audience.A commercial on daytime cable can easily reach over 100,000 people with a single airing.But to get the same impressions online, running pre-roll video on a cable networks’ website might take 3 weeks.

Then there’s the cost.Pre-roll video could have a $20-$30 CPM, while cable TV’s CPM is typically less than $10.

But if you’re trying to launch a book, online video can be an especially effective advertising tool.Think about it… the viewer is already at their computer, one click away from Amazon.

And many pre-roll video commercials come with a companion banner display ad.So if you use these companion ads to link to a splash page, your author homepage, or online bookseller – you’ll be able to track exactly how many people followed that link from your pre-roll video sponsorship.

Some websites have minimum investment levels, but many video sponsorships can be had for under $5K, much less than trying to mount a national TV campaign.

Questions to be sure to ask:

1)How many unique visitors to your site per day/month?

2)How many impressions will you guarantee for the pre-roll video spots?

3)Do you take :15s or :30s spots?[Note: Studies have shown a greater consumer acceptance of online :15s ads as opposed to the longer :30s]

8)Does an independent vendor monitor and serve the ads (like Doubleclick’s DART)?If so, is there an ad-serving fee?

So start your web browsers, find video content that fits with the themes of your book, and ask if they’ll put together a sponsorship package for you!

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for the past decade, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, and the San Diego Padres. He recently finished his first mystery, KATZ CRADLE. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

October 22, 2007

Wouldn't it be interesting if BN and Borders would let an ipod or iphone give you an audio first chapter of any book while wandering through the store - that would be a clever way to increase audiobook awareness.

October 19, 2007

On Tuesday, October 23, I will teach a course on overcoming fear of success at mediabistro.com, 494 Broadway. If you will be in the New York area, please check it out.

WRITING IN STONE

Dear Dr. Sue:

After years of doing the denial two step, I’ve finally admitted to myself that I want to be a writer and I’ve started a couple of novels and a screenplay. My problem is in that word, “started”…see, I can get going with wonderful energy, but as the piece grows longer and more complex, I can’t seem to make myself go back and re-read anything. So I just keep plowing forward, growing more and more confused, until I finally give up the whole project in disgust.

I suspect that part of the reason I cannot bear to re-read anything is my lingering fear that I will discover that I don’t have any business stringing words together, but I also feel like once I read something, it becomes absolutely fixed in its present condition. Once it’s written, I can’t seem to use the same imagination that created it to create alternatives to it. So I get stuck in first-drafts-ville, and thus never have something that I would be proud to send off and show to others.

Any advice on how to face my fears of the full-page, and learn how to keep my imagination engaged throughout?

Mardougrrl

Dear Mardougrrl:

Congratulations on discovering and acknowledging your vocation. Like all profound commitments, this one can, indeed, be fraught with anxiety and fears of inadequacy. While it’s possible to avert the possibility of failure by never finishing or rereading our work, as you have discovered, this is not the most effective way to grow as an artist or move forward with a career.

Some degree of cognitive rigidity is common when we’re embarking on a scary new adventure. (And no matter how confident you’ve been about your skills in the past, writing as a writer is still a new enterprise.) Novice mountain climbers rarely deviate from a narrow route or look back to enjoy the scenery. As we become more practiced and secure, we can play and experiment a bit more.

As you point out, though, this may be only part of the issue. Some writers continue to struggle with a sense of inevitability even after years of experience, as another correspondent, K, illustrates:

Dear Dr. Sue:

What should I do about my problem of writing in stone? I've published two nonfiction books and a novel. I've just finished a new novel after a long, intense struggle, and my pattern is clear: Once I have a hard-wrought draft of something, it becomes almost impossible for me to see where and how it needs to be changed. I always know that a first draft (and a second and third and fourth) will need further work. Themes must grow richer, characters must deepen and complexify, conflicts must be drawn more dramatically, with greater detail. The problem is that knowing doesn't help me with seeing. I still rely on other people's eyes to see what I think, by now, I should be able to zero in on, myself. I'm not talking about small or subtle things but big ones! Plot holes, boring stretches, loose ends, really basic stuff. Can you help me?

K

Dear K (and Mardougrrl):

I have not dealt with the problems of blind spots, or resistance to revising, in my practice, and I have not been able to find reliable information about possible causes and remedies. However, I would like to relate an experience of my own in the hope that you will find it useful.

Years ago, I had a very disturbing dream. On awakening, I knew I needed to turn it into a story, and I did. I wrote quickly, almost in a frenzy, desperate to get the story down. I was afraid of losing momentum, and also, I think, afraid of the powerful feelings the dream had unleashed. I wanted to shape the story, to mold it quickly, both to capture my original vision and to control and manage it.

The story I wrote was unsatisfactory, though. Despite my strong feelings about the characters and the main themes, I realized that I had been unable to translate the passion and the terror I felt onto the page. The characters felt flat, and although the plot held together on a superficial level, the conflict seemed tacked on. I showed it to more accomplished writers, who were able to point out weaknesses, but I had trouble considering revisions or even rereading the story because I also felt it was engraved in stone—I had worked so hard to transcribe it, and the associated feelings were so strong, that even the idea of changing the course of events or a character’s history or attitude felt overwhelming.

I believed that my dream, and the story I had spun from it, contained the seeds of a powerful narrative, one which I wanted desperately to write. But I sensed that I had rushed too quickly to capture my vision on the page. Now it had set like plaster of Paris, and I couldn’t alter it without breaking it into pieces.

After I had tried and failed repeatedly to deal with this story on my own, I read about an online class called “How to Procrastinate Your Way into Writing a Novel.” The teacher was M.J. Rose.

Unlike most of M.J.’s students (I imagine), I wasn’t trying to overcome procrastination—I hoped to embrace it! And embrace it we did.

M.J. assigned pre-writing tasks such as assembling a scrapbook of magazine cutouts illustrating important people and events in the lives of key characters; shopping and interacting in character; and creating journal entries in a character’s voice and handwriting.

Each exercise forced me to make choices I hadn’t considered in my rush to write. I wrote detailed histories for all of my main characters, going back to their grandparents; I leafed through decorating magazines, selecting the characters’ furnishings and then arranging these into room plans; I chose characteristic clothing and hair and eye colors for even the most minor characters. I captioned all of these pictures with handwritten comments by my narrator, and frequently with responses from other characters. And as I did so, I became increasingly immersed in the world I was creating. Each decision forced me to consider what it was that I really wanted to communicate, and how this could best be embodied in a character’s own choices. The central conflict of the story became clearer, and side issues that had initially appeared indispensable fell away.

By the time we got the go-ahead from M.J. to start writing, I had achieved unprecedented (for me) clarity about the theme of my story, its characters and conflicts, and how I wanted to structure it. I found that I needed to revise my outline as I wrote, because my sense of time is unreliable (in real life as well as in fiction) and I sometimes crammed too many days into a week, or skipped over major holidays in the time period the narrative was supposed to cover—but these were mechanical issues, and I knew how to solve them because the overarching plot and themes were so real and present to me.

The novel that eventuated from this class is one of the strangest pieces of writing I have ever done. I think that this is because I was able to be true to my authentic vision, without relying on conventional structure and plot lines—because I had postponed writing until I was clear about what I wanted to write, and why.

I am still tinkering with this novel; I’m not completely satisfied yet. I recently showed it to a writer I respect, who suggested that I bring the main conflict out earlier in the story. I looked at the manuscript and thought, I know how to do this. And I do.

Unfortunately, M.J. isn’t teaching this course anymore; otherwise I would want to sign up for it again. But I try to duplicate the effect by imposing a marination period every time I get the idea for a new story. I am too lazy to make a scrapbook for every character, but I do make sketches of them, their homes, and their wardrobes, and if I’m having trouble with dialogue, I try to write the story “inside out,” from the point of view of the more minor character, just to see what she or he really thinks and wants. I seldom use this material in the finished story (although sometimes an exercise turns into a story of its own) but the work to create and become familiar with a three-dimensional world allows me much more flexibility in writing and revising, and allows the story to clarify and set before it is committed to the page.

All of this would have seemed counterintuitive to me before I tried it. I would have imagined that it would be harder to revise after so much thought and research—that the more real the characters and situations became, the more they would feel “set in stone.” But it works the other way. Characters that leap straight from the imagination onto the page can sometimes resemble robots that are programmed to perform only a narrow range of actions. Real human beings can change, adapt, and grow, and still remain true to their essential selves. And when we try to make a more developed character behave in a way that would be false, the character lets us know.

I hope this helps. I’d appreciate it if writers who have thoughts or advice that might benefit Mardougrrl and K would share them in the comments section.

By M.J. Rose

M. J. Rose: The Collector of Dying Breaths: A Novel of Suspense
Indie Next Pick Amazon Best of April Mystery/Suspense
"Gripping--a suspenseful and enigmatic story... captivating... compelling, imaginative." (Kirkus)
"A page-turning, alluring concoction of fiction infused with fantastical yet actual history. Readers will be mesmerized by her enchanting narrative, which takes them on a mystical and magical journey." (Library Journal - Starred
"Rose masterfully combines romance, mystery, and dual timelines…The storyline and extensive historical details…are fascinating.” (Romantic Times TOP PICK))
"Mysterious, magical, and mythical…what a joy to read!" (Sara Gruen, New York Times bestselling author of Water for Elephants)

M. J. Rose: Seduction: A Novel of SuspenseIndie Next List.
Intriguing, absorbing, and utterly captivating, Seduction will leave you begging for a sequel." —Books & Books
"Mysterious, haunting, and tragic, Seduction emerges as a suspenseful alchemy of potent ingredients, beautifully blended, that ignites your senses and leaves you aching for more." (Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet )
"Seduction is an absolute pleasure to read -- clever, suspenseful, exciting, mysterious, learned, and engrossing. Some of the best historical fiction I've read in quite some time and just plain reading fun. M.J. Rose is at the top of her game, and that is saying something." (David Liss, bestselling author of The Twelfth Enchantment )

M. J. Rose: The Book of Lost Fragrances: A Novel of SuspenseINDIE NEXT PICK
SUSPENSE Best of 2012
PW Best of Mystery/Suspense Spring 2012
"Deliciously sensual...Rose imbues her characters with rich internal lives in a complex plot that races to a satisfying finish." (Publisher's Weekly (starred and boxed)
"Compelling... suspenseful tale. Once you catch a whiff, you will be enchanted". - Associated Press
"Rose has entered another realm and written what is bound to be one of this year's best books." -- Seattle Post-Intelligencer
"The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose is an amazing novel, an utterly engrossing thriller that weaves together reincarnation, ancient Egypt, international intrigue, and a lost book of fragrances. Elegantly written, with unforgettable characters and flawlessly realized international settings, here is a novel that will keep you up all night—and leave you with powerful feelings of revelation, wonder, and the infinitude of human possibility." —New York Times bestselling author Douglas Preston

Seen on FOXTV as PAST LIFE : The Reincarnationist THE REINCARNATIONIST. Starred Library Journal Review. Starred Publisher's Weekly Review. Booksense Pick for September and 2007 Highlight List.
"A fascinating story of reincarnation that is one of the year's most ambitious and entertaining thrillers." - David Montgomery - Chicago Sun-Times

People Magazine Pick of the Week : The Memorist "Gripping… Rose once again skillfully blends past and present with a new set of absorbing characters in a fascinating historical locale." - Starred Review, Library Journal ------------------------------
"Rose's fascinating follow up to The Reincarnationist... skillfully blends past life mysteries with present day chills. The result is a smashing good read." -Starred Review, Publisher's Weekly